Rice Krispie Cake & Coconut Ice

Posted by Gill Bland Wednesday, 5th August 2015

We’re well into the summer holidays now and whilst the weather is great at the moment there’s a strong chance that you’ll get some rainy days before school starts up again. These two recipes are easy and can be made with very few ingredients so they are ideal for rainy-day baking with the kids.

Coconut Ice

This isn’t really baking, but you can have lots of fun colouring it all the colours of the rainbow. It might be a good one to make if your child has friends are coming over - they can have fun packaging it up afterwards to take back to their parents as a present. I say that mainly because with the amount of sugar in it, you probably want a 10 mile radius between you and any small child that has consumed any significant amount of the stuff!

Rice Kripsie Cake

As with the previous, this is not exactly healthy but it’s the stuff that summer holiday dreams are made of. You can cover it in sprinkles, cut it into any shape you like (I made a bear from it once), dunk it in chocolate, whatever. Even better is that the recipe is very forgiving. As long as there are equal amounts of margarine, toffee and marshmallows and then a good amount more Rice Krispies (eg. your toffee should be 3/4 the weight of your rice cereal) then you’ll be fine. You want the mixture to seem a little on the loose side when you squash it into the pan to set. I always thought that the most fun bit was squashing the mixture into the tray with a potato masher.

Rice Krispie Cake

115g toffee

115g marshmallows

115g margarine

150g Rice Krispies / Rice Pops

In a very large pan over a low heat, melt the margarine, marshmallows and toffee.

Stir the mixture quite regularly until it is all combined.

Remove from the heat.

Measure the Rice Krispies out.

I’d suggest measuring the cereal into a bowl, then giving the little ones a jug to scoop it out and pour them into the saucepan.

I’d also suggest you hold the saucepan as they do this. You can let the melted mixture cool a bit before you do it, but it’s still better not to risk any accidents.

While you hold the pan, get your helpers to use a wooden spoon to mix the Rice Krispies into the melted mixture. It might be hard work for little arms, so it’s a good chance to take turns.

Grease (or line if you can be bothered) a deep sided baking tray / brownie tin / any other tin.

Carefully spoon the mixture into it, smooth out.

Next comes the fun bit - grab a potato masher and press the mixture down hard.

Sprinkle coloured sprinkles over an leave to set.

Coconut Ice

230g condensed milk

255g icing sugar

200g desiccated coconut

Food colouring

Measure the condensed milk and icing sugar into a large bowl.

Mix well until combined and thick.

Pour in the desiccated coconut and mix thoroughly.

Split the mixture into a bowl for each colour that you require and add a very tiny drop of the colouring.

If you want it marble-effect then mix a little, but if you want the classic look mix it a lot.

Line a small square tuppaware or tin with clingfilm or baking paper.

Press the coconut mixture into it, layering the colours as you wish. The classic is one a bottom layer of pink and the top white.

Leave to chill in the fridge for up 2-3 hours, then cut into squares.

You could put the squares into large jam jars or liner jars, tie a ribbon around them and give them as presents.